The present invention relates to railway tank cars, and in particular, to manifolded tank cars which may be interconnected to accommodate loading or unloading of the entire group of interconnected cars without movement thereof from a single point, thereby accommodating consecutive loading, transporting and unloading of fluid ladings and facilitating the formation of unit trains.
Individual tank cars are interconnected by flexible conduits or hoses which provide interconnection and communication between the insides of adjacent tank cars. During movement of the train, the flexible hoses are subjected to considerable swaying motions due to normal track irregularities as well as sharp turns and steep grades.
Preferably none of the liquid lading is stored outside of the tank cars during transit of the train to the destination point. To this end, it is advantageous to support the flexible conduit at a level above the associated connections to the adjacent tank cars resulting in drainage of the lading from the flexible conduit into the adjacent tank cars.